The Last Book
by InTheArmsofaTheif
Summary: On hold until further notice. Set 28 years after The Legend of Korra. Kanani is forced to run from her home due the the Equalist's pursuit. It's not safe for benders, especially her.
1. Prologue: The Cycle Continues

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**Prologue**

_The Cycle Continues_

When Avatar Korra was just seventeen, the same age I am now, the Equalists began to rise. A movement to stop the suppressing of nonbenders quickly turned into a civil war within the Republic. With the help of her friends and teachers, Korra was able to push back the Equalists deep within the Earth Kingdom.

Unable to do anything more, and already suffering great losses, the Earth King consented on the Equalists' terms to create their own kingdom in the rocky plains bordering the North Sea. This area is now known to the world as Mukta, the capital city of the Mecha Nation. While benders and nonbenders alike were able to live peacefully in the four great nations, no benders were permitted in the walls of Mukta unless they were willing to have their powers taken away.

For some time, Republic city and the rest of the world was able to rest easy. As Mukta built its cities, it left its agenda for later. Avatar Korra was always reassured by her closest advisors that this was the peace she had been meant to bring. Still, Korra felt there was something wrong. But seeing the happiness amongst the citizens of Republic city, she never voiced her worries.

Sometimes I think if she had, this burden wouldn't have been placed on me.

Ten years of peace was met with a sudden attack from Amon's army of chi blockers and mecha warriors. All that time the Earth Kingdom had let Mukta be built, Amon was preparing for battle. As war swelled, the surrounding nations pulled back their forces. Despite all the work Avatar Aang had put into rebuilding balance between the nations, they were all unwilling to help. Republic City was on its own. At first, they were able to push the fighting back past the abbey in the land separating Mukta and the rest of the Earth Kingdom. Korra and most all the benders in Republic City and the surrounding smaller towns fought valiantly alongside a number of nonbenders who were skilled in other means of combat.

The Kyoshi warriors came and defended the border while the benders were away. At first they were reluctant when the wind bender Meelo asked for their assistance. Republic City was far from their home and the warriors preferred to stay neutral and separate on their island. However, one of their sisters had been visiting the Republic before the fighting took place and she returned with Meelo to beg of their help. This sister had been saved and taken in by Avatar Korra and her friends, but more, she was in love with my father and she wanted to protect his home. Even still, the Kyoshi warriors were hesitant. Their sister left again for the city, saying what she thought might be her final goodbye.

A few months later, Meelo returned to Kyoshi Island alone. Their sister was pregnant with twins and refused to leave her now husband. When Meelo came back to the city this time, he had sixteen trained fighters with him. They defended Republic City as if it were their own island.

My father, although a powerful bender, stayed behind during one of the battles because of how close to due my mother was. He still blames himself. Perhaps if he had been there he could have saved his friend, the world may be different, and his daughter wouldn't be in so much danger. But my mother always sooths him the same way she would sooth me. "It was fate," she would say. "Your daughter was being born and this power wouldn't pass her for another. The Avatar was destined to die."

My brother was born first, then myself. When I opened my eyes for the first time, I'm told my eyes were glowing. My father, who had seen Korra in her avatar state, knew right away. Word wouldn't get back to the city of the Avatar's fall, of the Republic's defeat, until a few days, but seeing my eyes glow, he knew.

My mother told me that when our uncle returned, he was a wreck, almost unrecognizable from the man he was before. He was in love with Avatar Korra, and I believe she loved him too. My parents don't speak on the subject often. I've never met my uncle. My brother has, but my parents worry how Uncle Mako may react upon seeing me.

After the battle, the republic fell. Too many were disheartened by the Avatar's death. My family fled to the Kyoshi Island and watched from a distance, unable to do anything as Avatar Aang's legacy crumbled. Republic City, the Abbey, Makapu, Pohuai, Gaipan, and a number of smaller villages on that large island were all taken over by Amon and his followers creating Mecha Nation, only separated from the Earth Kingdom by two rivers.

By the time I was five, a witch hunt started for the new Avatar. Benders lived in fear. One misstep and many lost their bending, and with it their livelihood. Only a small handful knew I was the Avatar and that I was on Kyoshi Island: my mother, my father, my grandmother, the leader of the Kyoshi warriors, and, when I accidentally fire bent when I was eight, my brother and I.

Before Aang, it had been tradition for the Avatar to learn of their state on their sixteenth birthday. But, the Air Nomads, fearing the Fire Nation told Aang when he was but twelve years old. Avatar Korra realized her ability on her own while only five. That was when she first learned to earth bed. Tradition was slowly unraveling in a world where people were forgetting the strength of the spirits and the gods.

But, even with that one tradition broken, it took a lot to convince Master Kya to teach me the last element in my cycle first. Still, at the time, she was my only option to learn any element besides earth bending.


	2. Ch1: Escape

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**Chapter 1**

_Escape_

Kya first came to the island of Kyoshi when I was almost ten. With all of Meelo's visits, he tried to negotiate with his aunt to come and train me. For a long time, even when she finally agreed and came, Kya was very against training me. It went against the cycle. It wasn't natural. But with the Mecha Nation upon us, it was our only option.

Meelo couldn't stay on the island longer than a day or two without the Mecha soldiers watching him. Same with all the other air benders. Kya, however, lived remotely enough beforehand she wasn't on record. As an old woman, hair white with age, she came to Kyoshi Island under the pretense of being a former warrior. So, in my training as a warrior of Kyoshi, there was time carved out for me to study water bending under her.

She calls me a master of it now. She declared I mastered water bending when I was thirteen. Yet, at the same time my father said I was nowhere near mastering earth bending, which I had done since I was six. It always made me wonder. He told me there was always more to learn with earth bending, but the truth of the matter was I'm not as good as my brother.

Daichi, my twin, first began bending when he was four. When the pair of us discovered I was the avatar, it was because I was jealous. He had figured out how to metal bend while I could only do crude things with my earth bending. I was jealous and angry and I went to yell at him, and there was fire.

And then my life changed.

X

"Genji!" Kani called before letting out a brazen whistle. Within moments, her eel-hound came bounding from wherever he had been digging. His snout was covered in dirt and there was mud caked on the webbing between his front claws. Despite the dirt, Genji still looked majestic with the sun glistening off his purplely-green scales.

Kani reached her hand up and Genji nuzzled her palm. "Good boy," she cooed. "What'd you find?" Genji bounded back around the tunnel. A few moments later he came back with a tattered electro-glove between his teeth. Kani didn't know much about Mecha technology. It looked like a newer model, but it was so beat up it had to have been there some time. If they had been by here, this wasn't uncharted territory. She wasn't as safe as they believed.

In a swift motion, Kani swung herself onto Genji's back. She made a clicking noise and her eel-hound headed back towards the center of the Western Air Temple. When the pair reached camp, the smell of dinner cooking was overwhelming. Genji sped up at the promise of food.

"You're late, Kanani," Master Kya glowered. "I don't like you running off like this."

"Genji found a glove." She didn't need to elaborate on the type. "I thought Master Meelo said no one knew about this place."

"No one does," she sighed. "And don't call him Master. It'll go to his head."

A wooshing sound came from above and the pair looked up to see Meelo glide down to join them. "That's not nice, Aunt Kya. I'm a perfectly capable air bender."

Kya laughed. "Capable and master are two different things. You may be teaching Kanani here, but that makes no difference."

Meelo sulked with an exaggerated sigh and helped himself to a bowl of stew. Kani was already eating. The air bender was a fairly attractive but goofy looking man in his thirties for someone without hair. When she was younger, Kani had a crush on him. Meelo was always laughing and playing with her and her brother. A huge admirer of Kani's father, Meelo visited as often as he could before the air benders became restricted to the southern air temple.

Things had changed so much.

Kani watched her eel-hound eat the rest of the pot after Kya put her portion aside. She wondered how much longer she was going to live like this. _And I'm the one who has to fix everything_, she thought bitterly. _Otherwise I'll never live normally again_.

Kya put out the fire and the small group readied themselves for bed. Kani had been training with Meelo for just a month. Compared to her years under Master Kya, she had just scratched the surface of air bending. But Meelo insisted she was an excellent student. "I'm surprised it comes to you with such ease with earth being your first. I guess it has more to do with personality," he told her once. "Korra had the hardest time with air, but she was hard headed and passionate, so it's not surprising the gentle wind gave her trouble."

But it wasn't trouble for Kani. Sure, she was stubborn in her own right, but all her life she's been only wanted freedom. Air was that freedom.

Between her hands, Kani made a small tornado. She watched the air spin and spin between her palms. "This sucks," she muttered to herself, clapping the tornado away. Genji whined. Kani rested her head against her eel-hound and sighed. "I know boy. You miss Daichi, don't you?" Genji nuzzled Kani's shoulder. She pet his head slowly recalling the image of her brother. "I promise, you'll see him again one day. Hopefully one day soon."

For a long time, Kani rested, staring at the growing night. One by one the stars lighted in the sky. Sounds of Meelo and Kya readying themselves for bed flitted into her ears, but she wasn't really listening. Eventually, they fell asleep. Genji was already snoring lightly behind her, his deep breaths moving her slightly.

Just as sleep was beginning to grab ahold of her, Kani's eyes shot open. She stood up, heart racing inside her chest. There was something wrong. The others woke up right after, also sensing danger. Genji began to paw at the ground, his large eyes reflecting fear back at her. Kani shshed him, trying to calm him down. She could hear it now, the sound of Mecha's machines heading their way. Lights could be seen blinking closer.

Kya and Meelo were in a hushed conversation when a blimp overhead began a searchlight. The pair of them looked over to Kani. She looked between her two masters, her heart in her throat.

"Run."

The scene was all too familiar.

X

It was three months ago, my last day on Kyoshi Island. Kya and I were in our training room near the top of the village. We were meditating. I still haven't connected to any previous Avatars, so it was something we worked on often since I was proficient at water and earth bending. Daichi, my twin, entered, breaking my concentration. I almost yelled at him but the look in his eyes stopped me. Daichi was never afraid, yet fear was all I could see in him.

He told me to run, slamming his foot down. He opened the escape tunnel. Sometime when Daichi and I were still babes, our father created a series of tunnels with various opening points throughout the island so that when this day arose, I would be able to escape. The Mecha's had come, and they were looking for me. My brother and I embraced, tears swelling in my eyes. I had never been separated from him before. Kya and I jumped into the tunnel, leaving Daichi to close it behind us.

It came out underneath the Island. I opened the entrance and water flooded in. Together, we moved the water around us to create an air pocket and waited for Genji. For miles under the cover of water, he swam with Kya on his back and I next to him. Once we were far enough away, we surfaced, traveling by night until we reached the western air temple. There Meelo met us. I still don't know what happened on the island after I left. I can only hope my parents and my brother are all right.

X

Genji ran as fast as he could. Tears stung Kani's eyes, having to leave both her mentors behind. She knew they could take care of themselves. Kya was a smooth talker and Meelo was the closest thing to an ambassador the benders had, so it was common for him to be traveling.

The Mecha's hadn't detected her presence yet, which was all that mattered. Kani remembered Kya's words from when they were traveling to meet Meelo. "We are at a disadvantage and an advantage all at once. Someone must have spotted a girl earth and water bend. But for an earth bender Avatar, water is the last in your cycle. The assumption that Mecha has made is that you are a fully realized Avatar. Disadvantage is that they will have more precautions as to your strength and abilities and you'll have a harder time defending yourself. Advantage is that they won't be expecting you to head to neither the air nomads nor the fire nation seeking a master. They'll assume you already have."

When they reached the sea, Kani prepared herself, and under they dove. _To the fire nation_.


End file.
